Sailfest Fireworks - 2012

This was my third time watching the Sailfest fireworks in four years. The previous times I've watched from the waterfront district of New London and I was so close to the action that I struggled to keep the larger bursts in the frame. This year we found an ideal position from which to watch down at Fort Trumbull. There was much more space, fewer people, and two tall ships in the foreground, including the USCGC Eagle, which all added up to a great experience for me and the family. I'm pretty happy with how these shots turned out. Do you have a favorite picture from this gallery?

Sailfest Fireworks 2012 See the entire gallery!

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th of July Fireworks & Lightning

In accordance with annual tradition, my wife obtained a box of Wal-Mart's finest fireworks and we celebrated the 4th of July in grand style out in the driveway. The kids took turns writing messages with sparklers and flashlights and then we fired off the assorted fountains in grand style.

As we finished our fireworks show, the real fireworks began. A large storm cell rolled in and the kids camped out in the driveway to watch the lightning streaking across the sky accompanied by surround sound thunder claps.

No offense to our Wal-Mart fireworks, but Mother Nature seems to know how to put on a much more impressive show!

4th of July Fireworks & Lightning

Girl with wings

Secret messages

Flashlight art

The grand finale

The real show

 

 

 

Old Lyme - Memorial Day Parade - 2012

May 28, 2012 -- An Old Lyme tradition resumed again today under sunny skies, a welcome contrast to the drenching rains that caused the cancellation of the 2011 event. Parade participants marched in front of cheering crowds from the firehouse on Lyme Street to the parade terminus at Duck Creek Cemetery. The closing ceremonies incuded, among other things, performances by the Lyme Old Lyme High School Marching Band, essay readings, a flag ceremony, and a 21 gun salute followed by Taps.

I posted photos of this event right after Memorial Day and LymeLine.com ran some of them when they were fresh and new!

This annual event is one of my family's favorite aspects of living in small-town Connecticut. There is a real sense of community as we see people we know from school, gymnastics, and little league scattered up and down Lyme Street.

The whole town seems to be involved in the parade. Everyone first meets at the parade staging area as many families have kids marching with a band, baseball team, scout troop, etc. Then the parade rolls by, kids throwing candy, other kids scrambling to pick up candy, parents and spectators waving and snapping pictures. Then, the whole town gets up and follows the parade down to the cemetery for the Memorial Day ceremony. Afterwards, the parade sort of reverses course and we all follow the marching bands back to the firehouse where the whole event started! After enjoying free hot dogs and soda on the apparatus floor of the firehouse, residents are welcome to wander down to the Lyme Academy for the antique car show and an impressive array of sparkling automobiles.

Old Lyme Memorial Day Parade - 2012 - The Big Album See the entire album!

LOLMS Marching Band - Anchors Away, played 100 times!
(Mrs. Wind, the band director, will not listen to this song again for a few years, except in her nightmares!)

A patriotic parade watcher

This one was twirling the foot with the sandal in time to the marching band music

The New London Firefighters Pipes and Drums

 

 

 

 

 

Three-volley salute

 

 

 

See you next Memorial Day!

Trinity Church & Wall St.

On our recent trip to NYC we also visited the Wall Street area of Manhattan. We walked around and through Trinity Church and then headed down Broadway to see the iconic Wall Street sculpture Charging Bull. Unfortunately, the bull is still under constant police surveillance and barricaded to prevent anyone from approaching it. We walked back a few blocks until we could skirt the truck barricades and crowd-control fencing and walk past the front of the New York Stock Exchange, a tree that appears bigger than the one at Rockefeller Center, and Federal Hall.

Many of the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have moved on now that Zuccotti Park has been cleared out (eventually I may get around to posting some of the pictures that I happened to take during the first week of the protests back in September). Anyway, the police presence at the NSYE is considerably smaller now but the barricades there, just like at the bull, still remain in place. I suppose most of the cops have migrated north with the crowds flocking to Times Square and Rockefeller Center.

Trinity Church - Looking South on Broadway

Ashes from a thousand candles

Bull Pen -- The Charging Bull sculpture is guarded and fenced off from tourists

Now that's a Christmas tree

George Washington surveys the NYSE from the steps of Federal Hall

"Integrity Protecting the Works of Man" -- Pediment sculpture by John Quincy Adams Ward

Hello, there George

Trinity Church looking west up Wall Street

Christmas Time In the City

Despite warnings about record level crowds of tourists in New York City this holiday season we decided to try our luck in the Big Apple. We have guests in town for Christmas so we bundled up and headed for Rockefeller Center and the Christmas tree. There were crowds, but they weren't nearly as difficult to get around and through as I had feared.